Adopted Children, Featured
Jessica Tatiana Long was born in Siberia with fibular hemimelia, missing most of the bones in her lower legs and feet. Her parents, Natalia and Oleg, were scared, impoverished, unmarried teenagers. The doctors who delivered Jessica told her young parents that they would not be able to care for such a severely disabled child back home in their village. So Natalia and Oleg reluctantly decided to place their baby girl in a Russian orphanage, though they felt certain that no one would want to adopt a crippled child.
However, when Jessica was 13 months old, American couple Steve and Beth Long came to Jessica’s orphanage and adopted her and another little boy with a cleft palette. As soon as they brought her home to Baltimore, the Longs started seeking treatment for Jessica’s condition. When Jessica was just 18 months old, both of her legs were amputated below the knee, and she was fitted with her first prosthetic legs.
But Jessica and her family didn’t let a little thing like two amputated legs slow her down. She quickly learned to walk and enjoyed a happy, active childhood. “I am one of six children and my parents made sure we all remained active,” Jessica told the Siberian Times. “I have been involved in many sports including gymnastics, basketball, cheerleading, ice skating, biking, running, and rock climbing. However, I always loved swimming the most. I learned how to swim in my grandparents’ pool where my sisters and I would spend hours pretending we were mermaids.”
Apparently, Jessica’s version of a mermaid likes to swim really fast. Whenshe was just 12 years old, Jessica became the youngest competitor on the US team in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, where she won her first three gold medals. Jessica went on to win a total of twelve gold medals in three Paralympic games, and she is the current world-record holder in 13 Paralympic events. Her other awards include the 2006 U.S Olympic Committee’s Paralympian of the Year, and, at the age of 15, the 2007 AAU Sullivan Award, given to the nation’s top amateur athlete. She was the first Paralympian to receive this honor, beating out such high-profile athletes as speed skater Apolo Ohno and fellow swimmer Michael Phelps, and is still the only athlete with a disability to win the award in its 82-year history.
As her fame grew, Jessica became more curious about her humble beginnings. “I love Russia, and part of me will always be a Siberian girl,” she told Bob Schaller for USA Swimming. “Eventually, I would like to go back and see the orphanage I was adopted from. Want to hear something funny? Always when I was growing up, I thought I was a Russian Princess – Anastasia was my movie.”
Finally, after a flurry of international attention for winning five gold medals in the 2012 London Paralympic Games, a Russian reporter tracked down Jessica’s biological parents in the tiny village of Tem deep in the taiga. Natalia and Oleg were now married and had three more children – a daughter, Anastasia, and twins, Dasha and Igor. They knew that their daughter had been adopted by an American couple, but they were overwhelmed at the news that she was now a world champion Paralympic swimmer.
Within a day of arriving home in Baltimore after the London games, Jessica watched a video of her biological mother, father and sister on a Rossiya- 1 talk show. The video helped confirm something she had known intuitively since her childhood.
“I never once felt adopted in my family – never once,” she said. “I just knew that I had another family that looked like me. So, when I first saw the TV show and I first saw my biological mom, it was really cool. Because I just – I look like her.”
In December of 2013, Jessica journeyed to the village of Tem in the Irkutsk region of Siberia to meet her biological parents. She couldn’t speak more than a few phrases in Russian, but she told the Daily Mail that seeing where she came from was a life-changing experience. The 21-year-old posted a picture of her biological family on Twitter with the caption: “Meet my Russian family. I love them more than words can say. My heart is so full.”
Jessica continues to swim and excel and inspire millions all over the world. She recently brought home five gold medals from the 2014 Pan Pacific Para-Swimming Championships, which wrapped up on Sunday, August 10, and she is currently training for the 2016 Paralympic games in Rio.
“I believe God has a plan for everyone,” Jessica writes on her website, JessicaLong.org. “I believe God had a plan for me to be adopted from Russia, to come to the United States and become a Paralympic swimmer. Part of His plan is for me to inspire people, whether they have a disability or not.”
Photo by: Agência Brasil Fotografias
Featured
Simply put, I am the son of a very brave woman. Anita, my birth mother, was just 16 when she discovered my existence. She knew there was nothing easy about being a pregnant unmarried teenager, but she never could have predicted all of the trials and obstacles she would have to conquer over the next nine months. When my birth father discovered that Anita was pregnant, he decided that he did not want to be a part of any of this. He chose to leave her to face these challenges alone.
After a great deal of prayer and thought, Anita knew that adoption was the right choice. While she was preparing for adoption and experiencing all of the changes and challenges of pregnancy, she was also determined to continue her education. Unfortunately, the Illinois schools in that era refused to accept pregnant teenagers. Anita’s grandparents told her about a program in Mesa, Arizona that would foster pregnant teens while they got ready to place their children in adopted homes, and there was a school close by that would accept my eager, strong, and increasingly pregnant birth mother. In a great leap of faith, Anita chose to move across the country to an unfamiliar place in order to achieve her goals of continuing school and preparing to place me for adoption.
My parents, Dave and Pam, had moved to Arizona from Chicago to start a business and, more importantly, a family. However, Pam was unable to have kids. For almost six years they agonized through the full range of tests and fertility treatments, but nothing worked. Finally, one day, my mother traveled to Patronato San Xavieran Church, an old Hispanic church in Tucson, Arizona. She prayed for the blessing of a child for hours and lit a prayer candle before she left. Nine months later, to the day, Anita gave birth to me, my parents’ first child.
When Anita gave me life, she also gave life to my mother. I can’t imagine my mom, Pam, without kids – she is just one of those people who was born to be a mother. After me, Dave and Pam adopted my sister Rachel, and then later their niece and nephew, Danny and Nina. We were a crazy, mixed-up, and very close family.
I always knew I was adopted, which is good because my sister Rachel and I are both Hispanic and our parents are both very white (we have a lot of jokes about that). I was always encouraged to ask questions and even contact my birth mother if I wanted. As a kid, though, I honestly wasn’t very curious about her. I loved my parents and my family and was happy with my life. I knew that my birth mother loved me and that she couldn’t take care of me because she was too young. At one point I wanted to know about any medical conditions that she might have passed on to me, but lucky for me I was in the clear.
Throughout my childhood Anita came to visit me a few times and had photos sent back and forth informing her I was doing well and or how life had been for my parents, but nothing that I was old enough to really remember. This changed at my high school graduation, when I met her for what felt like the first time. She had contacted me via Facebook and asked if she could come to see me graduate, and I said sure, of course you can. It was weird, though – the moment I saw her, I knew exactly who she was. I had never seen anyone who looked so much like me, or I guess, who I looked so much like.
Anita was married by then, and brought her husband, Dan, to meet me as well. We all went out to dinner and had a very nice (and only slightly awkward) time together. Anita and Dan have three beautiful daughters now, and I plan to fly out for one of their high school graduations in a couple months to spend some time with them. For some reason my little half-sisters are all very curious about their big brother.
My birth mother not only gave me life, she gave me a world of infinite possibilities. My adopted family gave me the support and opportunities to become anything I wanted, which lead to me becoming a nationally ranked motocross racer, graduating with a Master’s Degree in Organic Chemistry, and entering the field of nanotechnology. I have a whole life in front of me to make the world a better place, and it’s all because of my birth mother’s brave decisions and unparalleled strength. Thank you, Anita. Thank you for making, in my opinion, the hardest choice there is and for placing me with a family that I love with all my heart and who love me back even more.
Simply put, I am the son of a very brave woman. Anita, my birth mother, was just 16 when she discovered my existence. She knew there was nothing easy about being a pregnant unmarried teenager, but she never could have predicted all of the trials and obstacles she would have to conquer over the next nine months. When my birth father discovered thatAnita was pregnant, he decided that he did not want to be a part of any of this. He chose to leave her to face these challenges alone.
After a great deal of prayer and thought, Anita knew that adoption was the right choice. While she was preparing for adoption and experiencing all of the changes and challenges of pregnancy, she was also determined to continue her education. Unfortunately, the Illinois schools in that era refused to accept pregnant teenagers. Anita’s grandparents told her about a program in Mesa, Arizona that would foster pregnant teens while they got ready to place their children in adopted homes, and there was a school close by that would accept my eager, strong, and increasingly pregnant birth mother. In a great leap of faith, Anita chose to move across the country to an unfamiliar place in order to achieve her goals of continuing school and preparing to place me for adoption.
Adopted Children, Featured
As a small child,
Even before I could talk,
My parents, meek and mild,
Told me of her,
“You came from another,
Someone we have never met, your “other mother”.
The stranger, your “other mother”, has blessed us,
Children, we could not have,
Her tears and pain,
Her gift of life and love,
Has been our gain.
Our Good Lord had a plan,
He was watching from above,
A new family was now mine to be,
One of happiness, security and love.
Cows and plows,
Track, drama and choir,
FFA, fairs, and dairy princess’,
This was life for me now.
Years passed with many unasked questions,
No answers to be found.
Did I look like her? Did she have red hair?
Tall or short, thin or round?
Birthdays, graduations, and my wedding day came and went,
Five children of my own,
Still, only in my mind,
My “other mother” could I find.
I prayed and asked the Good Lord,
“In your own good time,
Please bring her to me”,
Our Lord is so good and kind.
One June summer day,
The phone call was made,
My “other mother” was 90 minutes away,
We talked and talked, and
Planned to meet the next week.
Months have gone by,
Letters, visits, phone calls,
Tears and laughter started,
Though time kept us apart,
My “other mother” is filling her space in my heart.
Written By Diane
Featured
By Diane Noble
As a small child,
Even before I could talk,
My parents, meek and mild,
Told me of her,
“You came from another,
Someone we have never met, your “other mother”.
The stranger, your “other mother”, has blessed us,
Children, we could not have,
Her tears and pain,
Her gift of life and love,
Has been our gain.”
Our Good Lord had a plan,
He was watching from above,
A new family was now mine to be,
One of happiness, security and love.
Cows and plows,
Track, drama and choir,
FFA, fairs, and dairy princess’,
This was life for me now.
Years passed with many unasked questions,
No answers to be found.
Did I look like her? Did she have red hair?
Tall or short, thin or round?
Birthdays, graduations, and my wedding day came and went,
Five children of my own,
Still, only in my mind,
My “other mother” could I find.
I prayed and asked the Good Lord,
“In your own good time,
Please bring her to me”,
Our Lord is so good and kind.
One June summer day,
The phone call was made,
My “other mother” was 90 minutes away,
We talked and talked, and
Planned to meet the next week.
Months have gone by,
Letters, visits, phone calls,
Tears and laughter started,
Though time kept us apart,
My “other mother” is filling her space in my heart.
When my life in this world began,
And my “other mother” heard her call,
I do believe I was blessed,
I was given the greatest parents of all.
Featured
“I’ve had a wonderful life. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t thank you for everything you’ve given me.” (Kate Snyderman to birthmother Cheryl)
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Eight families and twelve children finalized their adoptions on live television as part of the Today Show’s “Choosing Adoption” series.
